johnson



(NoModelJ' M. O. JOHNSON.

Cutting Pliers.

No 232,975. Patented Oct. 5,1880.

' UNITED STATES PATENT tries,

MOSES C. JOHNSON, OF MILFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO HENRY G. THOMPSON, OF SAME PLACE.

CUTTlNG-PLIERS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 232,975, dated October 5, 1880. Application filed June 52, 1880. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, MOSES O. JOHNSON, of Milford, county of New Haven, State of Connecticut, have invented an Improvement in Cutting-Pliers, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

This invention relates to cutting-pliers, and is an improvement on that class of pliers rep- IO resented in United States Patent No. 209,677, dated November 5, 1878, granted to T. G. Hall, to which reference may be had. In that in vention either of the two hand-levers may be turned on its pivot without turning the other,

and the tool-body formed by the face or covering plates is permitted to vibrate or turns more or less with relation to the handles, and the central space between the cutting-faces of the jaw-levers, when the pliers are taken in the hand to be used, drops more or less out of line with the central line of the handles, making, as it were, a loose joint midway between the ends of the pliers.

One of the objects of my invention is to construct a stiff pair of pliers, or pliers in which the hand and jaw levers shall each be compelled to move positively in an opposite direction to the movement of its fellow, or a pair of pliers in which the tool-body shall not of 0 itself swing or vibrate upon the pins or studs holding the hand-levers.

In the patent above referred to the end of wire or other thing out off by the cutters drops into and injures the spring that opens thejaw- 3 5 levers. This I obviate by providing eaehjawlever with a lip to cover or bridge the space between thejaws as the jaw-levers are closed.

My invention/ consists in the combination and arrangement of parts for effecting these ends, as hereinafter specified and claimed.

Figure 1 represents, in side elevation, a pair of cutting-pliers containing my im provernents; and Fig. 2, a like view with one of the body or side plates removed.

The body of the pliers is composed of two side plates, (1 I). These side plates are fixed together by the screws 2 3 4 5. Of these screws, those 2 3 serve as the fulcra of the jawlevers e (Z, having at their ends the usual cutters or cutting-surfaces 0 d. Each of these jaw-levers has a lip, l, and the end of one meets the end of the other lip just as or just before the two cutting-edges c d separate the wire or other metal end to be cut off by them, thus closing the space between the said jaw-levers and side plates, in which is placed the spring f, and preventing the entrance into said space of hard pieces of wire or other articles that would clog the pliers. These lips also serve another essential purpose-viz., that of holding the ends of the spring from displacement and obviating the employment of a separate pin or stud to hold the said spring at one end, as heretofore common.

The screws 4. 5 serve as the fulcra for the 6 hand-levers g h, having short arms y it, to act upon the ends of the longer armsofthejawlevers and turn them on their .fulcra to close the jaws and bring the cutting-edges together. The springfopens the jaws the inst-anmthe 7o clasping pressure on the hand-levers is relaXed.

In order to move the jaw-levers equally at all times and prevent the jaw-levers and body of the pliers turning on the handles, I have provided one hand-lever with a prong, on, having a rounded end that enters a rounded notch in the opposite lever. This one prong and its notch are always in engagement, and so connect the two levers that the body of the pliers cannot vibrate on the screws 4 5, but, on the contrary, the two levers may turn each on its own pivot, both levers always turning the same distance, but in exactly opposite directions. This connection between the two hand-levers, 8 as described, insures a stiff pair of pliers, that can be handled more readily and accurately than the old form of cutting-pliers referred to, and which are more positive as to the movement of the cutting-jaws. v 0

I am aware, in bolt-cutters, where the short ends of the hand-levers are jointed with the long ends of the cnttingjaw-levers, that a series of teeth or cogs have been interposed to cause the hand-levers to be geared together; but in such bolt-cutters one single tooth and notch would not operate to always keep the two handlevers locked together as to their movement in unison, as is the case with my combined with the \l-shaped spring, held. as one prong, m, rounded at its end and inserted described, by the lips of the jaw-levers, all as within a, rounded notch. and for the purpose set forth. I claim- In testimony whereof Ilmve signed my name 5 The body composed of the side plates, at b, to this specification in the presenceof two sub- I 5 the independent fulcra 2 3 4L 5 for the jaw-levers scribing Witnesses.

and hand-levers, the jaw-levers provided with MOSES O. JOHNSON. cutting-edges and with lips e, and the hand- Witnesses: levers having short arms 9 h, and 2 prong SAML. LLOYD,

10 and notch always in engagement, as described, GEO. E. FRISBIE. 

